Word 2003: Master Documents

Word 2003: Master Documents

In Word, a master document acts like a “container” holding links to other, related subdocuments. Master documents provide a fairly easy way to manage a large document by keeping the individual parts separate as smaller documents, only bringing them altogether at the end inside the master document.

This is a great solution for team members each working on one portion of a document. Basically, you would store the master document and it’s related subdocuments on a network. This way, each team member would only be responsible for editing their individual subdocument.

Master documents are created by starting with an outline. Then, each heading points to a different subdocument.

Store all of your subdocuments in one location accessible to everyone editing the files

Create a new, blank document and save it to the folder that contains the subdocuments

Choose View: Outline from the Menu bar

Type the heading for the master document and headings for each subdocument (pressing [ENTER] after each heading

Use the Outlining toolbar to Promote and Demote each heading level

Figure 58. Outlining Toolbar

Assuming you have already created subdocuments, click the Insert Subdocument command on the Outlining toolbar (if you do not already have a subdocument, you can click the Create Subdocument command)

Figure 59. Insert Subdocument Dialog Box

Navigate to and select the subdocument you want to insert, and then click Open

If you are adding multiple subdocuments, make sure you have at least one blank line between each subdocument you add.